the_outsider's New Excalibur #18 - To Rise Again, This Day! (Albion Prologue) review

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    The glory days of Excalibur might be a thing of the past

    I always feel bad when I criticize Chris Claremont's writing. He is responsible for the most famous X-Men story ever told (and others), and also had a hand in co-creating some of people's favorite X-Men. The problem is it's come to a point where it's impossible not to criticize his work.

    The main problem is the dialog. It feels like a chore to read. This would have been great material back in the late 80s, but comic books have evolved since then, and sadly I don't think Claremont has. The story itself is kinda interesting, as it's basically Albion's origin. Unfortunately the uninspired dialog drags it down. Not to say the issue doesn't have plot holes exactly. Albion was given the same opportunity as Brian Braddock, but chose the sword instead of the amulet. Now we know what happened when Braddock chose the amulet and became Captain Britain... actually I could have used a refresher as to just what happened exactly... but it's never made quite clear what the big deal is that Albion chose the sword instead.

    You can kinda figure it out during the course of the story, but it doesn't feel all that important. Their is no urgency to the matter, and it all sorta feels flat and unimpressive. It seems that the only reason Albion wants to take power away from Roma and destroy all the Captain Britains is because she didn't want him to have the sword in the first place... but she actually didn't do anything to prevent him from having it. Seems kinda odd to dedicate your life to destroying something that didn't really pose much of a threat to you in the first place.

    Sadly I don't see this series surviving if something doesn't change soon.

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